Yesterday’s NewsVolume 25, Number 1 Winter 2018

The Legacy of John Warren McKeenBy Liz Kerr

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Published quarterly by the Lovell Historical Society

John W. McKeen was born in Lovell in 1914, attended Lovell schools, and died in Lovell at the age of 74. He and his wife of forty-one years never had children and during his lifetime he never accomplished anything considered noteworthy. He worked at many of the stores in town and was a caretaker for many properties. Yet, despite his uneventful life, thirty years after his death John continues to have a lasting impact on many lives. This is because his most important achievement in life was the legacy that he left behind. John was the third child of Ella and Herbert McKeen of Lovell. He grew up revering his grandfather, Warren B. McKeen who, thanks to hard work, owned two farms in Lovell, one on Old Stage Road and the other on Slab City. John married Hazel McDaniel of Bridgton in 1936. They lived in a house next door to what is now the Center Lovell Market, which was built for them the year they were married. Living relatives point out that John took the example of his hardworking grandfather to heart as he grew up. His niece and nephew, Nancy Pitman and Dean Stearns, describe him as fastidious, meticulous, reliable, and industrious. He was best remembered as always having at least two jobs. After serving in France during World War II, John worked at L.L. Stearns general store and then Skinner’s Store, both in Center Lovell. Later, he worked at C.N. Brown’s hardware store. While holding these jobs, he also served as caretaker for several properties on Kezar Lake and had a trash pick-up business. From 1967 to 1980, he was manager at the Boulder Brook Club. John certainly was hard working. While holding these jobs, he also took care of his wife, who had received a head injury from a skating accident that left her somewhat disabled. He sold bait, maintained

the household, and kept finely manicured gardens. He was known to drop everything to assist other people. He built a cabin on Heald Pond in the late 1950s. During his leisure, he was an avid fisherman, snowmobiler, and golfer.

John & Hazel McKeen. Photo courtesy of Dean & Pat Stearns.

THE LOVELL HISTORICAL SOCIETY

OFFICERS 2017-2018

Catherine Stone, President Liz Kerr, DirectorMarge Ward, Vice President Meghan Nyberg, DirectorDee Barker, Treasurer Lou Olmsted, DirectorSusan Welchman, Secretary Jean Stearns, Director Carol Taylor, Director

LOCATION AND HOURS

The Society, located at 551 Main Street in the 1839 Kimball-Stanford House, is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9am to 4pm, Saturdays from 9am to 12pm and by appointment. All are welcome to visit our museum and research collections. Business meetings are open to all members and are held at 2pm every other month at specified dates.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Phone number: (207) 925-3234 Mailing address: P.O. Box 166, Lovell, ME 04051Website: www.lovellhistoricalsociety.orgEmail address: lovellhistoricalsociety@gmail.com

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From the President

We had another very successful year in 2017, with fifty-five new members and a large bequest from the estate of Lt. Col. William C. Brooks. Contributions of artifacts and documents continued to increase as well. We feel very fortunate to have had this support and we would like to thank all of our members and friends. On October 15th, we held our very popular Fall Harvest festival. Birds on a Wire performed and Richard Legere demonstrated the use of a cider press with the assistance of Bob Anderson. River Ann Lusky and Terri Tomlin organized craft activities in the barn, which was beautifully decorated by Linda Matte. Local vendors displayed their wares and our hospitality table was packed with delicious food contributed by our members. Thanks to all who participated and attended! On December 17th, we hosted our Christmas Open House. Linda Matte, Sandra Bell, and Terri Tomlin did a beautiful job decorating the interior of the museum. Again, we had some local vendors selling their wares and an abundant hospitality table with food supplied by our members. We were very fortunate to receive three great raffle items from Chris & Jen Lively, Natalie & Jonathan Spak, and Hal & Carol Taylor. Bob Anderson & Terri Tomlin won the $200 gift certificate for home fuel. The $100 gift certificate to Ebenezer’s Pub was won by Bob & Anne Hatch and Roy Andrews won the $100 gift certificate to the Oxford House Inn. Thank you to all the members and friends who purchased raffle tickets.

Best wishes, Catherine Stone

2018 Events

Business Meeting Tuesday, February 20thBusiness Meeting Tuesday, April 17thAnnual Dinner Monday, June 25thSummer Fair Sunday, July 22ndBarn Tour Sunday, August 12thBusiness Meeting Tuesday, August 21stFall Harvest Sunday, October 14thBusiness Meeting Tuesday, October 16th Business Meeting Tuesday, December 18thChristmas Open House Sunday, December 16th

Supporting the Lovell Historical Society

There are many ways that friends of the Society can help support its endeavors and to assist you we have provided various ways one may do so:

General giftingSpecific gifting for a dedicated purposeGifts in memory of a special personGiving membership to the Society as a giftGifting goods or servicesGifting through one’s will or trust documentsGifting through appreciated stock or other assets

The Lovell Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all gifting is tax-deductible by the donor to the full extent of the law.

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John was also dedicated to the Town of Lovell. He was involved in the fire department, the Masonic Lodge, the Fryeburg-Lovell VFW, the Lovell Snowmobile Club, and the area Fish and Game Association. He also held several town positions over the years. He served on the Board of Appeals beginning in 1965, the Budget Committee beginning in 1976, and was a Fence Viewer (administrator of fence laws) from 1970 onwards. He held all of these positions until his death on March 29, 1988. Despite not having children of his own or perhaps because of it, John eagerly supported the youth of Lovell. He loved ice fishing and began to hold annual ice fishing derbies for children at his property on Heald Pond. He worked with Lovell Youthways, a precursor to the Lovell Recreation Department, to promote the event. There was always free food and prizes for the kids. After his death, Lovell residents continued the practice, and named it John McKeen Day in celebration of his life. According to Bonnie Fox, who was interviewed in 2001, the event became a community effort. To this day, neighbors haul gas grills down to the shore of Heald Pond in front of the

camp John used to own. There is plentiful food, all of it donated, and every child gets a ribbon just for participating. Prizes are awarded and snowmobile rides and sledding is also available. The event will be held this winter on February 24th. Another component of John’s legacy was the creation of the Warren B. and John W. McKeen Educational Foundation. Upon his death, his will created a fund that, thanks to judicious management, has grown in significance. Scholarships are available to students who have been residents of Lovell for at least a year. Applications are available at the Lovell Town Office, the offices of Hastings Malia and the Guidance Office of Fryeburg Academy. Applications are due by January 31 in order to be reviewed. Fond memories of John continue today thanks to his foresight in endowing the educational scholarship and the community’s continuation of his fishing derby. His compassion and generosity toward the Town of Lovell and its children has not been forgotten. As his nephew Dean Stearns put it, “He absolutely loved Lovell, Maine and Lovell liked him very much, too.” •••

Leewood Norton (1904-1981), John McKeen (1914-1988), and Enfield Wilson (1923-2011) after a day of ice fishing on Farrington Pond. Dated March 18, 1962.

Photo courtesy of Nancy Pitman.

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Reflections on the 1990 Ice Fishing DerbyBy Herb Adams

Herb Adams (1932-2011) had a career in education, both as a teacher and administrator. He was also a Unitarian-Universalist minister in West Paris and Norway, ME. On the day of the John McKeen Fishing Derby in 1990, he had a plan to go outside, spend a little time at the derby, and then come inside and write his sermon for the next day. He wrote this instead.

It was such a memorable day. The morning was chilly - about 12 below right there in the center. Larry Fox, a relation to John, told me it must have been colder “on the flat.” Why was it so glorious? The sun was bright. The snow on the vast expanse of the pond was clean and white. The colors of the hats, the mittens, the scarves, and the snowsuits moved around in a kaleidoscope pattern. And everywhere the laughter of children. There must have been 40 children - plus the ones who were

at that age where they wanted to fish but felt they shouldn’t because they were getting too old - at 13 or 14! Remember. The prizes weren’t much. T-shirts and ribbons and caps that said Pepsi on em. John Fox, with his eyes tearing, came on his snow machine. Roy Smith lost his teeth cutting a big piece of pine from across the road on the other side of the pond – they never fit just right, and he put ‘em in his shirt pocket while he was working on his pine. When he got home, he missed them. Never found them. That was 10 years ago. John told me that story as we stood in the midst of those kids. He was explaining why Roy thought the moose meat he’d given him was too tough. John said, “I told him if he’d get some new teeth, he prob’ly find that moose steak was tender enough.” Of course, there was the big black bear of a dog,

Leroy Smith (1908-1999) and John Fox (1907-2005) at the fishing derby. Photo courtesy of Jack & Beverly Bassett.

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barking and jumping and having a grand old time – chasing the sleds coming down the hill – or the snow machines. Ron McAllister came over. “Well, I see you’ve got yourself another church,” he said. “Yep,” I said. “And I like it.” We stood there silent for several minutes. I told him Wilfred Smith had just been telling me he hadn’t been down on the pond for 50 years. Ron and I agreed that there was something religious going on right there, right then. The kids were eating hot dogs cooked outside, some were sliding, some were cross country skiing, most were huddled around a fish hole. And around us were the parents of these babies – the mommies and daddies – who somehow found the time to come with their kids on a sunny Saturday to enjoy the glories of nature, to ice fish on a remote pond in Maine – to BE with each other. And there weren’t any record fish caught. Diana Gregson got one of two first prizes. She got a 12 ½ inch pickerel and she carried it around in her red mitten for 2 hours after her dad pulled it up through the hole.

She could have received a prize from me just for that! And when she got her ribbon, her dad asked her if she wanted it mounted and hung on the wall. She didn’t understand why all the grown-ups laughed. I saw Paul Reynolds walking to his truck when things broke up. He was carrying Diana’s pickerel. “What are you going to do with that, Paul?” I asked him. “I’m going to mount it for Diana. I’m a taxidermist,” he said. I guess it was the presence of all the men that got to me. Not having had a father of my own, and realizing how very, very important it is for a boy to have a Dad who plays with him, and talks with him, I was moved by all the men. But I learned something new – I mean I really felt it come in me like an eternal truth. Little girls want their Daddys too. And need to be with them – just as much as they need Mommys. It was a fine day – a blessed day – and I never got my sermon done. •••

Participants Corbin Blake, Camden Blake, and Elizabeth Littlefield at the 2013 fishing derby. Photo courtesy of Larry & Bonnie Fox.

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Gifts and DonationsWe are very grateful for the following gifts received since the last newsletter: Elizabeth Alden & Leo Dunn—collection of material related to the career of Harrison Keller, including photographs, sheet music, newspaper articles, and recordings; Androscoggin Historical Society—2 Brown’s Camps brochures and a Farrington’s brochure; Kris & Sukey Barthelmess—Camp Bry-Wood brochure, real estate information; Bedell’s Cleaning Service—cleaning services; Sandra Bell—baptismal gown, items for the Antique Shop; Bits n Bytes—computer services; Linda Randall Boucher (in memory of James H. Randall, Sr.)—Pyrene fire extinguisher; Merrill Chapin (in memory of Dr. Hubert & Elizabeth Barker)—photographs and correspondence from the Oliver C. Farrington property on Keewaydin Lake; Evelyn Davis—Eleanor Pearl Taylor’s 1920 journal; Lewis Dana Hill Memorial Library & Lovell Lions—sixteen Kezar Lake Grange #440 ribbons, award ribbons from the Fryeburg Fair and the North Waterford World’s Fair, copies of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Kezar Lake Grange; Chris & Jen Lively—gift certificate to Ebenezer’s Restaurant & Pub; Stephen Lubell—photos and autobiography of Winifred (Milius) Lubell, copy of Untended Grove by Lee Simonson; Grosvenor & Wendy Newcomb—- Andrews family genealogy, autograph book owned by May Louise Chandler, two copies of Moody Bridges: Pondicherry and the Beginnings of Bridgton by Blynn Edwin Davis, The Town Register: Fryeburg, Lovell, Sweden, Stow and Chatham (1907), Village Memories by W. Lawrence Stone; Margaret Nomentana—autographed letter signed “Rudy” on Rudy Vallee Lodge letterhead; Turf Ramsden—Tossing Out Last Years Fruitcake! by Flooded Cellar; Jonathan & Natalie Spak—gift certificate to The Oxford House Inn; Hal & Carol Taylor—home heating raffle item; Justin & Jenn Ward—honey extractor.

Donations for the purchase of oil have been gratefully received from: Joan Bishop; Allan Crosland & Maureen Duggan; John & Joan Crowe; Marc Greer; Arnold & Susan Harmon; Carol Jaffe; Ken & Ayn Male; Philip Marsilius; Grosvenor & Wendy Newcomb; Jack & Susan Rossate; Ellen Rowe; Robert & Mary Tagliamonte; Bill Rice & Marcia Taylor; Gene & Vicki Royer.

Cash donations have been gratefully received from: Kris & Sukey Barthelmess; Jim & Carol Bicket; Donna Blake; Gertrude & Donald Blanchard; Mercer & Mary Louise Blanchard; Chris Brink; Ann Chick; Brian & Ann Diskin (in memory of David Evans); Elmer Fox; Johanna Garton; Carmen & Beth-Ann Gentile; Patricia Gibson; Jane Gleason; Elner Hamner (in memory of Diane Seleen); Collier Hands; Phyllis Hetzler; Anne Isaak; Carol Jaffe; Paul & Terri Kelly; Raymond Littlefield; Tom & Jeanie Loeb; Mike & Thelma Maguire; Philip Marsilius (in memory of Dave Mason); Bill & Anna Marie McCormick; Kevin McElroy & Catherine Butler; Margrit Newman; Dan & Jeanne Ouellette; Stanton & Sally Perham; John & Helen Roberts; Tom & Laura Robinson; Mark Rogers & Sarah Campbell (in memory of Howard & Erdna Rogers); John Sargent (in memory of Edwin & Joanne Sargent); Mary Semple; Kim & Janet Sheffield; Lynn Stockford & Keith Lang; Hunt & Margaret Stockwell; Arthur Sumbler (in memory of Dave Mason); Ralph & Marilyn Tedesco; Charles & Maureen Tillett; David & Linda Wallace; James & Theresa Whitmore (in memory of David & Sally Knights); David & Elizabeth Woods.

If you have made a donation or given an artifact or other form of historical material and it has not been listed here or previously noted, please contact us immediately. We appreciate the thoughtful generosity of our members and friends, and most certainly want to acknowledge and list gifts properly.

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In Memoriam

We note with sadness the death of the following friends and neighbors.

William C. Bjork, 77, of Pepperell, MA, passed away on December 6, 2017. He was born in Winchester, MA on August 28, 1940, the son of David and Edith Bjork. Before retiring, Bill worked for many years for Raytheon Company in Lexington, MA. He summered at his home on Harbor Road in Lovell, spending a great deal of time golfing at the Lake Kezar Country Club. He was predeceased by his son William and is survived by his wife Margaret, two children—Helena Prentiss and Donald—and four grandchildren.

Bernard N. Borman, 85, of Boston, MA and Lovell, died on December 13, 2017. He was born in Belleville, IL on August 27, 1932, the son of Abe and Rose Borman. He received a BA from the University of Illinois, a JD from Harvard and served as an officer in the US Army in Korea. During his career, he worked for Lane & Altman, specializing in commercial real estate leasing law. He was involved in a myriad of civic activities and was instrumental in abolishing the Governor’s Council. In the last twenty years of his life, Bernie spent considerable time at his second home he co-owned with long-time friend Shoo Hale, Four Cedar Farm on Old Stage Road. He is survived by his two daughters, Jennifer Borman and Emily Spurrell, and seven grandchildren.

Arnold Ellsworth Davis, 72, of Lovell, died on September 28, 2017. He was the son of Irving and Julia Davis and joined the Navy in 1962, serving for six years. Before retiring in 2013, he worked as a supervisor in the field of heavy construction for two large companies. He is survived by his wife Janice, two children—Lynne Gilmore and Shane—stepdaughter Heidi Parmenter, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Aubrey M. Graves Jr., 69, of Stow, ME and formerly of Lovell, passed away on December 10, 2017. He was the youngest son of Aubrey and Florence Graves. He graduated from Fryeburg Academy, served in the Army Reserves, and worked for Bill Robins for thirty-one years as a carpenter and mason. He is survived by his wife Linda, two children—Kimberly Pingree and Jody—four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Ian Kenneth MacDonald, 27, of Lovell, passed away on November 22, 2017. He was born on December 14, 1989, the son of Leonard and Joy MacDonald, and graduated from Fryeburg Academy. He worked as a welder at Harmac and was an avid outdoors man who loved to hunt and fish.

Larry W. McAllister, 73, of South Paris, ME, died on December 25, 2017. He was born in Lovell on March 6, 1944, the son of Carroll and Edith McAllister. He had been employed at C.N. Brown for forty-five years as a mechanic, clean-up, and pump installer. He is survived by his former wife Sandra, five children—David and Larry, Samantha Buck, Rose-Marie Buker, and Karol Fernandes—nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Betty (Fuller) Pilsbury, 97, of Hilton Head, SC, passed away on November 19, 2017. She was born on August 4, 1920 in Tulsa, OK to Robert and Gladys Fuller and graduated from Principia College in Elsah, IL in 1942. In her professional-volunteer career, she served the Girl Scouts of America (two terms as national president), the YMCA, United Way and the League of Women Voters. Betty summered in Lovell, both at Boulder Brook Club and her farm on Old Stage Road and was a life member of this Society. She is survived by her husband Dick, two children—Rick and Anne—two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Diane R. Seleen, 72, of South Kingstown, RI, passed away on October 6, 2017. Known by her nickname “Bean”, from 1964 through 1968 she was a counselor at Camp Mudjekeewis on Kezar Lake. She received her BS from Central Michigan University, her MS from the University of Rhode Island, and her doctorate from Boston College. She spent thirty years teaching in the Physical Education Department at URI, specializing in swimming. She was a life member of this Society. She is survived by her spouse Judith Matteson.

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The Lovell Historical SocietyP.O. Box 166Lovell, ME 04051

If your mailing label doesn’t say “6-18” or “Life,”it is time to join or renew your membership. Thanks!

Sheila Smith, 69, of Lovell, passed away on December 10, 2017. She was born in Massachusetts on October 2, 1948. She owned and operated the Center Lovell General Store for eleven years. Later she worked for Community Concepts, North Country Learning Center, and in private practice as a care giver. She was also an active member of Fryeburg Rescue at the EMT level and very involved with the Ladies Auxiliary of the Lovell Volunteer Fire Company. Sheila was predeceased by her husband Bill and daughter Christine Greer, and is survived by two children—Richard and Joe Re—and several grandchildren.

Robert Edward Steller, 70, of Lovell, died on October 9, 2017. Before moving to Lovell in 2002, he was a history and political science teacher at Middletown Township High School, Middletown, NJ, for over thirty years. While in Lovell, Bob was past chairman of the SAD 72 School Board, served on various committees for the Town of Lovell and was past president of the Board of Directors of Westways. He was a life member of this Society. He is survived by his wife Patricia Gibson.

Harold Thompson, 68, of Lovell, passed away on December 8, 2017. He was born in Lovell on January 10, 1948, the son of Harold and Mildred Thompson. After attending Lovell schools, he had a career as a logger and woodsman. He worked for Norris Bennett and the Drew Corporation. Harold was predeceased by his wife Janet and son Scott and is survived by his daughter, Sonja Stevens, and two grandchildren.

Bryan P. Ward, 51, of Lovell, passed away on November 2, 2017. He was born on September 22, 1966 in Brunswick, ME, the son of Phil and Margie Ward. Bryan graduated from Fryeburg Academy in 1985 and went on to have a career with the US Postal Service. He served as a Union Steward for several years. He is survived by his son Justin.